Ripple (XRP)

Ripple (XRP) Review – Crypto Coin Judge

Ripple is a real-time settlement ecosystem that has global scope. This crypto and its network plan to connect different banks worldwide. Having XRP as its ticker symbol, the Ripple coin works closely with different banks. Unlike any consumer-facing product, the Ripple ecosystem may be thought of as a completely back-end infrastructure.

The ecosystem is a global, open-source exchange that can be accessed by anyone, and everyone has an equal right to work with it. However, Ripple, the company, does not manage the network, limit access to it, or control the associated fees. The core value of almost every crypto—such as Bitcoins—is to replace banks, but the Ripple crypto is different as it works with the banks. For this reason, this crypto has received a serious backlash from the crypto world. Now, it is time to review XRP coins and the distributed open payment network known as Ripple.

Ripple history

First deployed in 2004, Ripple was initially developed by Ryan Fugger in Canada. Around 2005, Fugger began building Ripplepay—a financial service providing a secure payment option to the members of a specific online community. Fleshing out the concept of this protocol, programmers developed a fresh digital currency system in May 2011 with XRP—the network’s very own cryptocoin.

In 2011, the idea to develop a complete Ripple system was taken a step further by Jed McCaleb. The coin was basically programmed and implemented to:

1 – Eliminate Bitcoins’ reliance on a number of centralized exchanges.

2 – Use less electricity than what is consumed by Bitcoins.

3 – Perform different transactions more quickly than any Bitcoin-related transaction.

Finally, in 2012, the Ripple protocol was launched with the chief goal of ensuring instant, secure, and nearly free global money operations without any chargebacks. According to the protocol, the payments can involve any cryptocurrency, goods, fiat currency, or any other unit such as mobile minutes or passenger bonus miles.

The Ripple network’s lead cryptographer, David Schwartz, stated that the payment systems of today are very similar to the email service providers of the early 80s. Back in the day, every email provider built its own ecosystem for its customers; having siloed ecosystems made the interaction with those using other email clients very difficult. Similarly, cross-border bank transactions have become complex because financial institutions rely on different operational and business models. Ripple therefore aimed to connect different multiple payment systems together.

Ripple analysis

What is Ripple all about?

Put simply, Ripple is a real-time, distributed payment protocol that is meant for everything with value. This ecosystem is a shared public database with a built-in distributed currency exchange operating as the world’s first-ever universal translator for money.

Ripple is a fully fledged platform that includes a foreign exchange component, which is present at the core of the payment protocol. Ripple may be a pathfinding algorithm for discovering the most profitable route for a dollar to be converted into airline miles or a euro to become a Bitcoin. This ecosystem analyzes every single order present in the global order book for providing the best routes.

Furthermore, the most exciting part of this open-source payment network is that anyone can simply bid-ask on any single thing of value. Ripple’s existing protocol is programmed to give the simplest and cheapest transaction route available.

The network has easily managed to deliver on most of its promises and has done so by associating with many successful names in Silicon Valley. In addition, the network has even partnered with a number of international banking institutions, leaders, and regulators in the world of technology. Some of the top names that have incorporated the Ripple system include MIT and Google.

Ripple’s innovation

Trust matters

The transactions in this open-source payment network are always confirmed by the consensus of network participants, which is very different and less cumbersome than the mining work done in the Bitcoin network. With BTC mining, the transactions can be processed by only those who can afford costly computing power.

However, Ripple is different and that is why it has successfully won the trust of many payment networks and banks. For example, the Ripple protocol has been used by the powerful Earthport service payment system, which works in close to 65 countries and includes the HSBC Bank and the Bank of America.

Unpanelled security

The ecosystem is powered by a set of foolproof mathematical algorithms that are obeyed by XRP. These rules can never be changed. The stability of the platform’s rules makes it very secure and reliable. As no organization or person controls XRP coins, they cannot be falsified, duplicated, or created. Payments with these coins happen between peers, making it more direct. Furthermore, this cryptocurrency is simple to use, as it does not need any institution, intermediary or third-party company.

XRP coins play a critical role in managing the security of the entire system. Every single XRP transaction destroys a bit of the coin in the form of commissions. The XRP’s security cost is nothing for everyday Ripple users; even if the users are high-volume ones, they will just lose few pennies. Nevertheless, the abusive users attempting to spam the network with a lot of transactions will soon run out of the XRP coins and will be forced to stop.

Unbiased validators

To distribute the level of control that the network’s founding company exerts over it, a set of validators is put in place. These validators are there to make sure the ecosystem runs smoothly even if the company fails. These validators are unique nodes that may be individuals or organizations verifying the transactions that are performed in the open-source payment network.

That is, these validators act as a semi-centralized agency and assure the users that none of the transactions are double spent. The current validators present in the XRP protocol include:

CGI (Canadian Global Information)

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Microsoft

Mining XRP coins

Unlike Bitcoins and many other altcoins, XRP coins are not minable. When it comes to mining different cryptocurrencies such as DASHSiacoinSTEEM, Komodo, Litecoins will need software or GPUs or specialized mining equipment. However, with XRP coins, it is a different situation.

Unlike most of the altcoins present in the market, the Ripple coins are already pre-mined. That is why these coins are not as widely condemned by financial institutions as Bitcoins and other altcoins. There is no Ripple mining device present in the market. These cryptocoins can only be purchased from an exchange but cannot be mined.

Ripple wallets

These days, crypto investors are spoiled for choice as they can pick from a range of wallets—and nearly everyone offers unmatched security. In reality, the security of these wallets completely relies on where the investors store their crypto wallet’s private keys.

1 – When a wallet is created, a private key is also generated.

2 – This key is used for accessing the funds or coins present in the wallet.

3 – It is always recommended to only use wallets that allow investors to own the private key.

4 – For instance, when the investors will store the crypto coin on an exchange present on the internet, the keys are stored on its live servers.

5 – In this case, if the server is hacked, investors may end up losing their funds.

So first-time investors should only rely on wallets that let the speculators own the private key.

One more thing: Ripple wallets will not be available for free. Unlike a Bitcoin wallet, which allows the investors to use it even if they have zero satoshi, a Ripple wallet will need the investor to store at least 20 XRP coins to get its address.

If an investor has 100 XRP coins in the wallet, she/he will need at least 20 XRPs to book the address. This condition makes the investors own only a single wallet address instead of having a number of addresses. In the end, crypto speculators need to make sure that they select only the wallet that best fulfills their requirements, because a bad decision in this regard will cost an investor 20 valuable XRP coins.

Buying XRP coins

The market for digital coins like bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, Veritaseum is heating up at a steady pace. More and more cryptocoins continue to be developed and are entering the market claiming to be faster and better for payment settlements. Worldwide interest in the crypto space has surged and boosted the collective market cap from a mere USD93.3 billion in August year 2017 to a whopping USD600 billion in a matter of just three and a half months—that is a growth of 543%!

In spite of the rise of new digital assets, Ripple coins remain the most scalable in the crypto market. The market is taking note of this coin’s reliability, scalability, and speed—and this has sincerely strengthened the demand for this crypto wherever it is listed.

However, when it comes to getting these coins, the investors cannot mine them. Instead, these coins can be purchased from a number of exchanges worldwide. Some of the popular exchanges where XRP coins can be bought are as follows.

Kraken

Bitstamp

CoinOne

Bitso

Korbit

Coincheck

Qryptos

Bitbank

Bitcoin Co. Ltd.

LiteBit

BTC Markets

Bitsane

Gatehub

co.id

IO

GMOCoin

pro

With so many exchanges to pick from, the digital currency’s value is set to climb in the future. This XRP coin is listed on 50 exchanges, which means that the Ripple platform will develop its own Internet of Value in the near future. In short, this cryptocurrency and its open-source payment network will make the flow of money as smooth as the flow of information.

XRP versus BTC

Here is the low-down on why XRP is the next big thing in the crypto world when it is compared with BTC:

1 – XRP coins have various advantages over BTC coins as they have been built for a variety of purposes in mind whereas Bitcoins are a digital currency built over the blockchain technology.

2 – Fast and cheap: The XRP’s transactions can be processed in just four seconds as they are fewer in number when compared with Bitcoins. This, however, has the additional bonus of economical transaction fees. However, the price of BTC transactions has been on the rise lately.

3 – Mining and non-mining: Every one of the 100 billion Ripple coins are already pre-mined, so mining is not at all possible in this case. However, to avoid flooding or inflation, a few coins are released in the market every month. This crypto is quite unlike Bitcoins and other traditional digital currencies that can be mined.

4 – Bank acceptance: This open-source payment ecosystem and its currency are becoming accepted by many banks worldwide. This acceptance has, in a way, given the much-needed legitimacy to Ripple cryptocoins. From an investor’s viewpoint, this development can be quite assuring. However, the same investor assurance or legitimacy is nowhere to be found with Bitcoins or any other run-of-the-mill cryptocurrencies for that matter.

Ripple’s future

1 – Ripple’s future success is tied to the total number of people using the network, and how effective the XRP coins really are. Also, it is important to note that the total supply of the XRP coins is 100 billion, so the investors can expect a bit of price modulation in the time to come.

2 – Traditionally, the payments inside the emerging markets need different currency traders and even pre-funded local currency accounts within the destination. This means a lot of dormant, trapped capital is present.

3 – Banks and other payment providers can rely on XRP coins for funding these payments every time without any intermediary. This process will surely be available at a cost that will be less than half of the existing costs incurred in transferring currencies.

4 – However, the crypto territory is uncharted for payment providers and banks, which is why it will take some time before witnessing a broad adoption of crypto in the banking landscape. Nevertheless, once the adoption is done on a large scale, the entire payment sector will solve trillions of dollars.

The team behind Ripple

OpenCoin, the company behind the Ripple protocol, was cofounded by Jed McCaleb (CTO) and Chris Larsen (CEO). McCaleb has a rich experience in digital currency and had worked in Mt. Gox—the same company handling a large share of the global Bitcoin trades. Larsen previously co-founded E-LOAN—a credible online financial company. All the other developers working on the Ripple network have rich experience in Bitcoin and cryptography.

Note: OpenCoin is not related to OpenCoin.org, which is developing an electronic cash system and is not related to cryptocurrency.

Summarizing Ripple

The use of XRP coins will be done within Ripple to make the open-source payment ecosystem more robust. As the XRP coins will be used more frequently within this payment network, their liquidity will rise with time. Plus, this crypto project is one of the few legitimate viable competitors of traditional financial systems because it can play a key role in managing the way money moves around. When this open-source crypto project is viewed from the standpoint of the global payment industry, its prospects are promising.

What do you think about this crypto coin’s prospects? Do share this feature and your thoughts about this burgeoning cryptocurrency with other crypto enthusiasts.

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